A Little Yarn On The Side

Our plans to go cross country skiing over the weekend got pushed back a week, so that left us without plans for the weekend.  I took the opportunity to go on a mad sewing frenzy, and last night put the final touches on TWO fleece pullovers!!!  As one is actually a gift for a February birthday, you can understand my relief.  They're the same fabric and same size, so I cut them both out and sewed them at the same time, which turned out better than I expected.  AND, I have a new best friend: I bought this little guy with some of the money I received for Christmas.  I'd read that rotary cutters made it easier to cut out challenging fabrics, but being ME, I expected to cut myself instead.  And I would have with my normal cutter, but the small blade is much easier to control.  Fleece is just so thick that the pattern puckers with traditional pinning,  so I improvised some weights (really, there are SO many things available in the sewing room to...

A friend and I were joking around this week, and I mentioned that some of my yarn and I have been together almost 10 years now, as 2006-2007 are when my stash REALLY exploded.  She commented that I've been with my yarn longer than a lot of marriages last.....  THAT'S a sobering thought.... So, channeling my Finishitis, I dug out this: which I started back in 2010 with yarn I bought in 2007.  It got set aside for no real reason--I think I probably just drifted on to something else, but I've already completed 2 pattern repeats and am close to the decreases for the arms.  That makes me feel a bit better.  Having a lot of yarn is a bit less overwhelming when one still likes the oldest yarns and one uses them. When one has a stash this large, one can find LOTS of ways to try to feel better about it.................

I have finished Sitcom Chic!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sorry for the poor photo--I think it's the shock of having a finished sweater around here.  I haven't finished a sweater for me since July of 2013 .  Granted, that has a lot to do with the back issues and getting depressed because I couldn't wear normal clothes for several years (still can't),  a great deal to do with being on pain meds, and a general tendency to be a bit of a flake when it comes to the fussy bits of knitting.  I am so excited that I got very excited about finishing a second sweater, so I dug out which is probably where one sends Finishitis to die.  I have split for the arms and am one 32-row repeat left until the neck decreases, but it's STILL on size 2 needles.  It happened to be the easiest project to grab, but I think I'm going to dig out a different one.  I'd like to get at least one more sweater finished before the excitement fades, and this one still has at least a year to go....

Last night I made the first bowl, and in spite of the fact that I am actually revolted on my alma mater's SERIOUS over-emphasis on football, I love how the bowl turned out and it has not diminished my lust after additional fabric.  The saving grace is that I would never in a million years put this anywhere in my house, so I have promised myself to be cautious about which people I make this sort of gift for.  And I am saved from going on a wild bowl-making frenzy by not having very much of the stiff stabilizer in my stash, and knowing I can't be trusted anywhere NEAR a fabric store right now.  So, I am setting this aside and will find something ELSE to work on.  Hopefully something using a bit more yardage.

20 of my Me Made Mondays need to be new or unworn things.  I put it that way because there might be a bin in my sewing room with things waiting to be blocked.  Ahem......  So yesterday I washed and blocked these 8 finished projects.  Not all of them are for me, but the Begonia Swirl in the middle is, and at least one or two of the keyhole scarves.  Sadly, there are still more items in the bin, but that's okay!  I can get them washed and blocked as soon as these are done, and I'll have at least one more new item to wear.  Let's just say it's a fairly large bin, and move on...... Today my cold is a little better, so I'm going to go to the gym for a really light workout.  That makes Me Made Monday a bit more tricky, so  I'll wear this fleece jacket that I made in 2008 .   I actually like it very much, but it is too much of a jacket to just wear around the house, and as a jacket, it's pretty light-weight to wear very often, so it do...

With all the cleaning I've been doing--and feeling like maybe I should rest a bit if I'm ever going to get rid of this cold--I took a REAL Finishing Friday today.  Originally, I was moving things around to maybe start a new project, but since one of the items I was moving was a table runner all pinned and ready to be quilted, the tiny rational side of me thought, "Hey, maybe I should finish a project before starting a new one..."  After wondering where THAT little voice has been all my life, I picked out another variegated thread to play with, and can I just say that I'm not sure if the stronger draw is that I think it will look nice OR that I want to justify having bought several variegated threads and because I'd like to justify eventually buying more of them.  It has been 27 days since my last fabric purchase, and I have come so close to caving at least 3 times already that I am currently bribing myself with a Sulky Blendables Dream Assortment if I ...

It took a few hours to feel like doing anything yesterday, but once the Sudafed kicked in, I cleaned like a maniac. After four years of dealing with a bad back/hip, lots of things had been neglected, so the house needed it.  However, I had to be a bit more sparing in my Sudafed use today, because it's just a bit much for me.  I was finally calm enough to use my wooden knitting needles without starting a fire Boy-Scout-style, so the body of Sitcom Chic is done!  The sleeves were joined raglan-style, so the only seams are the underarms, which is nice.  Next will be to pick up the front edgings, so it's really close to being done.....and it's about where it would get set aside for a faster, easier project if I didn't need 20 finished items to wear this year.  If you can't overcome your weaknesses, at least find a way to work around them.  I was even calm enough to finish this: which was surprising.  I used a simple thin zig-zag and my walking foot...